NFC to arrive in Australia “within three months”

Commonwealth Bank of Australia plans to introduce a mass-market NFC service based on microSD technology “within three months”, ZDNet Australia reports:

A highly placed source within CommBank today told ZDNet Australia that the bank intends to skip the trial phase and go straight to market with a case-based option to power up a customer’s mobile handset with NFC.

It is understood that the cases would be powered by a microSD card programmed with a customer’s banking details, and inserted into a phone case complete with an in-built contactless payment chip.

“The CommBank source said that its customers are calling out for an NFC payment option,” ZDNet adds.